Families SA sex predator was 'bulletproof'

Pedophile childcare worker Shannon McCoole was viewed by co-workers as "bulletproof" after he escaped sanction over an incident in a care home, a royal commission has heard.

South Australia's Royal Commission into Child Protection heard on Monday that McCoole brought a hard drive containing R-rated movies into the home, which was occupied by several girls aged six to nine.

The hard drive, which was left in the living room where it could be easily accessed by the girls, allegedly contained a film titled "Young People F***ing".

The film was discovered by another youth worker, who said she viewed it for about 10 minutes and "didn't see anything that was particularly pornographic".

The worker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she reported the discovery to a supervisor but received no response.

She later heard "through rumours" that the film was deemed to be no more explicit than teenage comedy film American Pie.

Carers were later banned from bringing in personal hard drives but the youth worker said McCoole escaped direct sanction.

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"When nothing happened, I was of the mind that this guy is bulletproof," she said.

"There was, from my point of view, a real sense of futility."

The youth worker told the commission she expressed concerns to her superiors about McCoole's domineering manner and his private denigration of children under his care.

McCoole was later promoted to a more senior role on a temporary basis ahead of more experienced co-workers.

Families SA's decision to hire McCoole in early 2012 came despite the fact his psychometric test results classed him as "high-risk" and "very unsuitable".

The inquiry has previously heard that staff were not shown how to properly interpret the test results, and that McCoole boasted of fooling the agency into hiring him by lying in the tests.

Families SA has since changed its recruitment process for care workers.

McCoole was jailed for 35 years in August last year for 18 state and two federal offences, including persistent sexual exploitation of children, sexual intercourse with children, and the production and dissemination of child pornography.

Commissioner Margaret Nyland is examining how McCoole, who was also an administrator of a global child pornography website, was able to offend against children in state care between 2011 and 2014.